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Court tosses Sivak's death sentence
Law Firm News |
2011/09/08 09:20
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The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed the death sentence of an Idaho man convicted of brutally slaying a former coworker because the state allowed a jailhouse informant to lie on the witness stand.
Lacey Mark Sivak was sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of Dixie Wilson at the Baird Oil gas station in Garden City. In a ruling handed down Wednesday, the appellate court said that while Sivak's murder conviction was appropriate, the outcome of his sentencing hearing might have been different if prosecutors hadn't knowingly presented the testimony of an inmate who lied on the stand.
Still, the appellate court said state attorneys may decide to hold a new sentencing hearing if they still want to seek the death penalty for Sivak's crimes. |
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Lawyers wrap up Int'l Court's first trial
Law Firm News |
2011/08/25 08:57
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div class=entrydiv class=articlepProsecutors began wrapping up the International Criminal Court's landmark first trial on Thursday by urging judges to convict a Congolese warlord of recruiting hundreds of child soldiers and sending them to fight and kill in his country's brutal conflict./ppDeputy Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told judges that evidence in the trial that began in January 2009 gave voice to children that militia leader Thomas Lubanga had transformed into killers; those girls that Mr. Lubanga offered to his commanders as sexual slaves./ppBensouda said the armed wing of Lubanga's Union of Congolese Patriots political party trained hundreds of children in 20 camps scattered across the Ituri region of eastern Congo in 2002-2003./ppThey were used to fight in conflicts. They were used to kill, rape and pillage, she added./ppActress Angelina Jolie, who is a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, was among dozens of people who watched proceedings from the court's public gallery. She made no comment to reporters./p/div
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Federal court rejects Houston cop killer's appeal
Law Firm News |
2011/08/21 10:18
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A federal appeals court has rejected an appeal from the convicted killer of an off-duty Houston police officer arguing that two jurors at his capital murder trial in 1999 were improperly rejected by prosecutors because they were black.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholds a ruling from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in the case of 32-year-old Anthony Haynes, who is black. He was condemned to death for the 1998 shooting death of Houston Police Sgt. Kent Kincaid, who was white.
Acting on an appeal from the Texas attorney general's office, the U.S. Supreme Court had ordered the 5th Circuit to reconsider its 2009 decision that Haynes get a new trial or be released from death row. The Supreme Court had in 1986 found it unconstitutional to dismiss a juror solely because of race, but the justices said the 5th Circuit panel misinterpreted its rulings when it decided Haynes deserved a new trial. |
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Drug company lawyer taped trying to foil lawsuit
Law Firm News |
2011/08/19 08:58
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International business can be an ethical jungle, but it's rare to get details of bare-knuckle tactics on tape.
A lawyer in Mexico for a leading U.S. drug manufacturer offered to pay an opposing expert in a lawsuit if he would leave the country on a key court date to undermine the case.
The company, Baxter International Inc., promotes itself as a champion of global anticorruption efforts. Baxter said the lawyer was not authorized to make any offers, and it has severed all ties with him.
The recording and its disclosure offer an unusual glimpse of fishy maneuvers in the global marketplace and come as the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission crack down on misconduct by U.S. companies abroad, part of a multinational effort to clean up commerce.
Based near Chicago, Baxter is a major manufacturer of intravenous drugs and medical devices. Its medications are used to treat people with hemophilia, kidney disease, immune system problems, infectious diseases, serious burns and other conditions.
The lawyer was talking to accountant Rafael Aspuru Alvarez, an expert witness for Translog, a trucking company embroiled in a $25 million legal dispute with Baxter's subsidiary in Mexico. |
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Nigerian who allegedly scammed 80 law firms, lawyers out of $31M extradited to US
Law Firm News |
2011/08/15 09:19
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A Nigerian man who fled to his homeland after being accused of defrauding dozens of lawyers and law firms of more than $31 million dollars has been extradited to the U.S., Nigeria’s anti-graft agency said Friday.
Emmanuel Ekhator was arrested in Nigeria’s Benin City by the country’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in August. He was handed over to U.S. marshals in New York on Thursday, said Femi Babafemi, the anti-graft body’s spokesman.
“With the latest extradition, ... the message should be clear to anyone who travels abroad to commit crime and run back home to hide that Nigeria is no longer safe for them,” Farida Waziri, the anti-graft body’s chief, said in a statement. “We will get them and hand them over to face the law.”
Court records show Ekhator has yet to be assigned a lawyer. He remained in custody on Friday.
Charging documents from the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania show that Ekhator and others are accused of mail and wire fraud after using bank accounts in South Korea, Singapore, China and Japan to collect the stolen money.
Federal prosecutors say the complicated scam involved multiple players, with a fraudster calling a U.S. or Canadian law firm posing as someone usually in Asia who needed to collect a debt from a person or organization based in North America. Another scammer poses as the debtor and agrees to pay off the debt — using a fake check, authorities say.
The law firms or lawyers collect the fake check, which gets validated by a third scammer posing as a bank employee over the telephone. Before the victims realize the check is fake, they’ve already used their own money to pay the fake settlement amount to their supposedly Asia-based client. |
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Miss. judge suspended for misconduct
Law Firm News |
2011/08/12 10:24
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The Mississippi Supreme Court has suspended Alcorn County Justice Court Judge Jimmy McGee for misconduct.
The Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance had accused McGee of interfering with a criminal case and making statements in open court encouraging others to engage in vigilante justice.
The complaint involved a case in another court in which McGee's relative was a crime victim. He allegedly said in open court in 2008 that his relative's case should have been handled down on the farm instead of in the justice system.
The Supreme Court ordered a suspension without pay for 270 days, a public reprimand and assessed $100 in court costs. |
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